Pocket compass with retractible points



March 14, 1967 W. G. PEcK 3,308,538

POCKET COMPASS WITH RETRACTIBLE POINTS Filed Oct. 20, 1965 HS. 5 INVENTOR.

WELLIAM s. PECK ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,308,538 POCKET COMPASS WITH RETRACTIBLE OINTS This invention relates to a novel pocket compass, and more particularly, to a novel pocket compass of a type especially suitable for use by school children, which may be made very inexpensively, yet which includes safety features tending to prevent soiling and damage to clothing, and to provide a high degree of protecting against jabbing by the needle point of the compass.

Briefly, the invention contemplates a pocket compass comprising -a pair of common, so-called ball point pen barrels, or casings, secured together by a hinged bracket. One of the casings is fitted together with a standard writing cartridge for marking, either with ink or some other material such as, for example, so-ca lled liquid graphite. The other casing is fitted with a cartridge having a needle tip. Both cartridges are readily retractible into the casings, and in the preferred form of the invention, an abutment device is provided for automatically triggering the retraction of the cartridges in response to closing of the compass, that is, in response to bringing the two casings together into juxtaposed, parallel relationship.

Ball point pens are currently among the cheapest writing instruments available in the market in the United States, especially the type in which the advance of the cartridge is controlled by an insert at the end of the easing opposite from the writing point, which insert carries a radial embossment biased radially outwardly for engagement alternately into two axially spaced apertures in the casing. Such pens may currently be purchased at retail for as little as five cents, and are sold in quantity lots at still lower prices. Thus, they are well suited for use in a pocket compass to be offered to young school children to whom price is a more important consideration than line quality.

Pens of this type are also well suited for use in the practice of the invention because it becomes a relatively simple matter to provide an abutment device for engaging the radial bosses of both inserts as the two casings are brought together after use, thereby automatically causing them both to retract before the child pockets the compass.

The invention will now be described in greater detail in connection with the drawing, wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a front elevational view of a pocket oompass according to a presently preferred embodiment of the invention;

FIGURE 2 is a side elevational view of the compass shown in FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary cross sectional view taken along the line 33 of FIGURE 2, illustrating the provision of a needle point in place of a writing instrument in one of the casings;

FIGURE 4 is a horizontal sectional view of the compass shown in FIGURES 13, showing the operation of the abutment device for automatically retracting the cartridges in the pen casings;

FIGURE 5 is an elevational view of the angle bisector carried by the pivoted bracket in the compass, showing the attachment of the abutment device to it; and

3,308,538 Patented Mar. 14, 1967 FIGURE 6 is a cross sectional view taken along the major vertical axis of FIGURE 5.

As shown, a pocket compass according to a preferred embodiment of the invention includes a pair of ball point pen casings 10 and 12 secured to the opposite respective arms 14 and 16 of an articulated bracket (not generally designated). The casings 10 and 12 are releasably secured in split sleeves 18 and 20, respectively, which are fixed at the ends of the respective arms 14 and 16, and dimensioned to hold the casings tightly enough for use but not tightly enough to prevent their withdrawal for replacement purposes. The casings 10 and 12 are preferably provided with downwardly facing, annular shoulders 22 and 23, respectively, which act as abutment stops for easy and simple positioning of the casings 10 and 12 in the sleeves of 18 and 20.

As previously noted, the casings 10 and 12 are preferably of the type having two axially aligned, spaced holes 26 and 28 for receiving an embossment 30 carried by the pusher insert 32. When the cartridge is advanced, the embossment 30 extends through the hole 26 nearer the writing end of the instrument and holds the cartridge 34 in its advanced position until the embossment 30 is pushed radially inwardly, whereupon the cartridge spring 35 retracts the cartridge 34 until the embossment 30 reaches and enters the second hole 28 to keep the cartridge from escaping from the casing. To advance the cartridge 34, it is simply necessary to push on the pusher insert 32. The embossment 30 is then cammed out of the second hole 28 and advances until it enters the first hole 26.

In accordance with the invention, one of the casings 10 is fitted with an ordinary ball point writing cartridge. The other casing 12 is fitted with a modified cartridge having a needle point 36 in place of a ball point. The modified cartridge 38 may be a simple pointed shaft provided with any desired means for attaching the cartridge retraction spring, or it may be a standard brass or plastic cartridge not filled with writing fluid, but instead, fitted with a relatively short needle point 36 at its end.

As previously noted, the casings 10 and 12 are preferably of the type having two axially aligned, spaced holes each other, and the bracket is fitted with an angle bisector 40, which in accordance with the invention, is extended opposite from the handle 42 to carry an abutment member 44 for engaging the embossments 30 when the bracket is closed. In many instances, the embossments 30 must be pushed inwardly beyond the surfaces defined by the outer rims of the holes 26 in order properly to release. In accordance with the invention, this is readily provided for without the need to form a member having a special entrant portion, simply by making the abutment member 44 of a relatively soft, elastomeric material such as rubber used in a pencil eraser, or the like. Such material yields under hand pressure to conform to the outer surfaces of the casings 10 and 12, and thereupon enters the holes 26 sufiiciently far to insure release of the embossments 30.

What is claimed is:

A pocket compass comprising a retractible ball point writing instrument, a second instrument generally similar to said writing instrument but fitted with a needle point in place of a writing tip, an articulated bracket for holding both of said instruments in a generally radial position in a common plane, each of said instruments having a laterally projecting control member for holding the instrument in its advanced position, inward motion of the control member being efiective to cause the instrument to retract, said instruments being mounted With their respective control members facing each other, and an abutment member carried by said bracket for engaging the control members when said instruments are swung into juxtaposed, abutting position thereby to retract said instruments as the compass is closed.

2/1894 Deats 33152 729,717 6/1903 Beasley 33152 2,663,936 12/1953 Lepkowski 3327 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,100,166 3/1955 France.

OTHER REFERENCES Popular Science, February 1957, vol. 170 #2, page 230,

0 Retractible Scriber Point.

LEONARD FORMAN, Primary Examiner.

H. N. HAROIAN, Assistant Examiner. 

